Monday, February 6, 2017

French Macaroons

Alona has tried to make these cookies with a friend previously. However, they opted to make flour with sliced almonds and sugar and this resulted in really watery mixture.
This attempt was made with extra fine ground almond flour and worked much better.
The pink ones were made first and were a little too big. The smaller hazelnut cookies were much better.
We used almond flavoring for the pink ones and some pink gel coloring for the cookies with a raspberry filling.
For the chocolate hazelnut ones we used a hazelnut flavoring and brown coloring with Nutella for the filling.
We will definitely be making these again. It was so much fun coloring and baking them!

We did not have superfine sugar, so just used more confectioners sugar.

Here's the original recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/french-macarons.html


Ingredients:

2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup almond flour
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
2 to 3 drops gel food coloring (see below)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla, almond or mint extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F using the convection setting. Line 3 baking sheets with silicone mats. Measure the confectioners' sugar and almond flour by spooning them into measuring cups and leveling with a knife. Transfer to a bowl; whisk to combine.
2. Sift the sugar-almond flour mixture, a little at a time, through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing with a rubber spatula to pass through as much as possible. It will take a while, and up to 2 tablespoons of coarse almond flour may be left; just toss it.
3. Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt with a mixer on medium speed until frothy. Increase the speed to medium high; gradually add the superfine sugar and beat until stiff and shiny, about 5 more minutes.
4. Transfer the beaten egg whites to the bowl with the almond flour mixture. Draw a rubber spatula halfway through the mixture and fold until incorporated, giving the bowl a quarter turn with each fold.
5. Add the food coloring and extract (see below). Continue folding and turning, scraping down the bowl, until the batter is smooth and falls off the spatula in a thin flat ribbon, 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch round tip. Holding the bag vertically and close to the baking sheet, pipe 1 1/4-inch circles (24 per sheet). Firmly tap the baking sheets twice against the counter to release any air bubbles.
7. Let the cookies sit at room temperature until the tops are no longer sticky to the touch, 15 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the humidity. Slip another baking sheet under the first batch (a double baking sheet protects the cookies from the heat).
8. Bake the first batch until the cookies are shiny and rise 1/8 inch to form a "foot," about 20 minutes. 9. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Repeat, using a double sheet for each batch. Peel the cookies off the mats and sandwich with a thin layer of filling (see below).

What we liked:

How fun these were to make!

What we didn't like:

The mixture seemed watery, but it turned out great!

What Kaspian thought about it:

He loooooved the sandwich cookies!

Next time:

Definitely stick to making the cookies smaller. 

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